Unfortunately it has been announced there will be no Macnas Parade during this year’s Galway Arts Festival.Macnas statement.GAF statement.
Basically Macnas couldn’t sustain the company after absorbing parade costs and Galway Arts Festival couldn’t cover additional request. Some thoughts:
Every single promo of Galway features the Macnas Parade, and the entire city benefits from it in a myriad of ways. If 100 businesses contributed €1000 it would cover cost of the parade entirely. Instead a flagship Galway event will fall by the wayside. This city is built on FDI & the eduction sector, and both are heavily dependent on Galway being an attractive place to live. The Macnas Parade hugely contributes to that image. As was said to me by an NUIG Lecturer on Twitter: “I have heard senior people in multinationals say that Galway’s arts culture is a key factor in locating here.”
Needless to say, this is also the year of The Gathering.